This year is the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. Janeites rejoice (in suitably restrained and quietly sardonic fashion)! Brontë devotees – I suppose you had better go for a long walk across a large moor until it is one of your lot’s time to shine again.
Until then, it is all things Austen. Expect genteel celebrations from Bath to Hampshire and screen and print schedules stuffed with tributes to, dramas inspired by and features about the great woman and her works for the next 12 glorious months. First off the televisual blocks is Miss Austen, an adaptation of Gill Hornby’s book of the same name, which tells the story of the just-beginning-to-be-famed Regency novelist through the eyes of the beloved sister who long survived her, Cassandra – played by Keeley Hawes with her customary controlled, unshowy magnificence.
